BYU unveils international cinema minor

The minor aims to not only introduce students to foreign films, but also the cultures that produce them. | File photo

At a recent College of Humanities colloquium, Brigham Young University professors Chip Oscarson and Daryle Lee announced the school is adding an international cinema minor as an option for students.

The university has been screening films from other countries since the 1950s. Previously, these films were studied as part of foreign language minors.

In the presentation Lee noted that, as film theorist Dudley Andrew has said, films from foreign countries should place the viewer in an unfamiliar space that introduce the territory of the native land.

“It’s clear that [film] theory and criticism has become much more self-consciously, more decidedly invested in cinema’s international dimension in the last couple of decades,” Lee said.

The minor aims to not only introduce students to foreign films, but also the cultures that produce them. Lee also states that international cinema students will be tasked with reconstructing techniques used by filmmakers and studying them.

Oscarson said students outside of humanities majors have signed up for international cinema courses.